Fractured Souls
by Man Of Reason
Summary: Since when was anything ever normal for one John Connor?


In retrospect he should have known, he should have seen it coming

Disclaimer: I won nothing; if you sue you get my home brew.

A/N: So I'll call this a slight AU to be safe my friends and I am pre apologising but it had to be done, I swear. Anyway I hope you like. Post 'Allison from Palmdale'

**Fractured Souls: ****Chapter One**

In retrospect he should have known, he should have seen it coming. There had been no prying mother or cyborg in his room when his alarm had pierced through the morning. For once he had managed to actually sleep through the night. No nightmares of a barren world filled with those who did not know they were already dead, living on borrowed time. No waking up covered in sweat as a gleaming silver T-1000 hunted him through the deserted streets of Los Angeles. No tears in his eyes as loved ones were slaughtered around him.

When he had started to get dressed and realised that all his clothes were clean, even the ones he felt like wearing, he should have started to look around the child's room he was borrowing to make sure there was no bomb in the corner, just waiting to be trigged as he passed the sensor. Instead he had gazed out the window at the passing cars, briefly wondering what it would be like to have nothing more to worry about then been late for work, or late for school.

Breakfast should have been the only clue he needed really. He had been the last to arrive, his mother and uncle already digging into the pancakes on their plates. Cameron, already dressed and ready to leave, was frowning they way she did when her processor was running calculations, or trying to mimic thoughts, or actually having thoughts. Truthfully he wasn't really sure. Derek was smiling smugly, his mother was glaring at her fork and, just as he took his first bite of the wonderful concoction pretending to be a pancake, Cameron spoke in that annoyingly innocent voice of hers.

"I don't understand," her frown deepened somehow, "how can pancakes taste like chicken? The mixture contains no poultry products, nor any artificial flavouring that would indicate-"

She was cut of by his mother's hand punching the table, causing everything to jump. "Enough, tin miss." She herself was interrupted and could only roll her eyes when Derek snorted around his food. '_He was laughing at the terminator? Laughing at the machine he hated so?'_ His mind struggled to comprehend what was happening at the table. Were they actually acting like some strange family? Is this what a normal family is like?

His mother, trying to move the conversation away from her culinary skills, asked what could have been considered a normal question. "So, are you sure you're ready to go back to school? You can wait till next semester if you like?"

Was that sympathy, worry or fear he saw in her eyes? "What and never graduate?" he asked as lightly as he could manage around a mouthful of …_sustenance_. He continued before he his mother could answer, "Don't worry I'll be fine, it's the same one I went to last time. No one gave me a second glance; no one cared who I was. Besides I still know the floor plan and this time Cameron is coming with me."

"You say that like it's a good thing," his uncle was never one to beat around the bush, but yet another glare from his mother forced him to explain. He jabbed his fork at Cameron, who had been studying him with her had tilted slightly to one side, eyes unblinking, "Look at _it_ and tell me that that's not strange, that that's not going to draw unwanted attention. That machine is trouble or I've never seen it."

A ghost of a smile touched Cameron's lips as she leaned forward slowly and, holding Derek's gaze, replied, "You should shave, razor blades are no longer a rare commodity." Derek blinked, fork pausing half way to his mouth. His mother laughed at Derek's expression and at her reaction Cameron flashed him a dazzling smile. He stared between the three of them, mouth agape, '_What the bloody hell was going on, are they actually getting along?'_ Why did that seem weirder than normal?

If he was a smart man, and he supposed that one day he would have to be, he would've run upstairs and gone straight back to bed, demanding to be left alone. Instead he decided that things would be fine once he escaped the… happy family. "We should get going," he said as he stood and hefted his bag over his shoulder, "we don't want to be late, now do we Cameron?"

The smile was replaced with her usual emotionless face as she replied, "If we leave now we will arrive approximately twenty-four minutes and thirty-two seconds early." Derek laughed again as he felt his face burn, huffing approximately under his breath.

Completely unaware at the hole she had just dropped him in; Cameron went and collected her bag. He, on the other hand, cringed as his mother folded her arms across her chest and raised one eyebrow at his half eaten plate. "I suppose that will have to do," she declared softy, but just as relief started to wash through him, she smiled an … amused smile, "you shouldn't look so happy, you've forgotten that you and Cameron are meeting with the principle first thing. If you leave now you might just make first period."

He had fled, but not before Derek had decide to add one last jib as he slipped through the door, something he had barely heard about Riley having to wait. Then Cameron had calmly informed him that if he kept grinding his teeth like that he would eventually injure his jaw. _'Like a sister trying to get under his skin?'_ his mind had wondered, _'even though he was sure that that wasn't why she said it.' _

The smile then that had sat on his face the whole way to school, due to thoughts of his strange little family, was actually one of happiness. Even if he had let all the rest pass him by, had somehow not noticed it, that right there should have been enough, should have been all the sign he needed. Since when was everything perfect for one John Connor? When did the world actually make sense?

The trip to school he had hardly noticed, except for the fact that after pulling into a parking spot Cameron had mumbled "twenty-two minute and fifty-eight seconds," she looked at him, head tilted to one side as she put the car in park, "there was traffic."

The front of the school had been crowed, even for the early hour. Cam had fallen into step half a pace behind him, over his right shoulder, books clutched to her chest. The low stone fence to his left had been intermittently occupied by clusters of students, groups paying no attention but to what happened in their own little worlds. No one paid any attention to the guy who had attended only briefly, or the girl they had never seen before. That was until he saw Riley in the distance, talking to a couple of people whose names he struggled to remember.

Whatever she had been saying didn't seem to matter anymore when she caught sight of him, pausing mid sentence her head followed their progress along the path, her expression though, was hardly what he expected. It was something he had never seen on her face before, she looked …_bewildered._ He hadn't even realised he had taken a few steps toward her until Cameron grabbed his arm, "John, the principle."

He had glanced at her as she nodded toward the entrance to the school, then he looked back towards Riley, who was still staring at them with her mouth slightly open. He waved quickly then pointed toward the double doors as he let Cameron led him. Riley's mouth closed and she nodded, yet her expression hardly changed. '_Why would she be surprised? I told her I was coming back today, I even told her Cam was coming with me, why had she kept looking at me like that?'_

He didn't have much time to worry about it however. Quickly he had passed through those doors, through the metal detector, where this time Cameron had explained about her metal plate while producing a forged medical certificate, and walked the halls towards administration. Nerves that most people felt in such situations had passed long ago for him, principle after principle came and went, these days they all seemed to blend together and this time had started no different.

They had been ushered into his office by the secretary and had been asked to wait; apparently the principle had just stepped out for coffee and would be back soon. A smirk touched his lips as he whispered to Cameron, "He's probably smoking in the teachers lounge."

That strange ghost of a smile had touched her lips again, just turning the corners of her mouth up in a smile and she had winked back at him, apparently happy to be sharing the conspiracy. The chairs that they had sat on faced the large desk that for once looked expensive. The view from the windows behind desk took in the playing fields, which had been near empty, except for a smattering of students quickly making their way towards the main buildings, when some inane chatter behind them announced the arrival of the principle.

Seconds later a man that looked to be in his late fifties flowed through the door with an actual coffee cup in one hand and some files tucked under the other arm. He shared a glance with Cam as discreetly as possible, who flashed him a brief smile, before he looked back to the man who had just settled behind his desk. Slightly bolding, white streaks at his temples, bushy eyebrows and, as he leaned back into his chair with his arms gripping the desk, his face was stern. '_Ex-military_,' he had quickly decided, '_wonderful_.'

His voice had confirmed it, short and sharp, "Mr Baum, welcome back." He frowned, "I trust you'll be staying longer this time?" He remembered opening his mouth to respond, when the eyes of the man he knew only as Mr. Shanahan flickered to Cameron briefly before returning to him and, in a gruff voice that he was sure he would remember for a _very_ long time, asked, "Where is your other sister?"

Beside him Cameron visibly tensed as his mind seemed to not comprehend what he had just heard. _'What the hell…?'_ He was sure that his mouth opened and closed a few times before he managed to speak, "I'm not sure wh-."

He had been cut off; however, by an _all_ too familiar voice from the door, "I'm right here." His head had snapped around so fast he was sure he was going to feel it for days.

As his eyes fell on the young women that entered the room, who paused only to give Cameron a brief glance, before slowly taking a seat beside him, he was sure his brain broke. Then and there, it would never work properly again.

Except for a bandage on her forearm and a few scratches on her left check, she was Cameron's clone. From the way her hair fell to her shoulders, to the big brown eyes and the shape of her chin, to the very expression on her face as she smiled sweetly, they were identical. "John's not sure it's a good idea that my sister and I are in the same room together at the moment." She looked at him for the first time then, her gaze demanding that he play along, "He just doesn't understand."

The principle shook his head slightly and scratched under his chin, clearly exasperated, "And why does John think it's not a good idea that you two are in the same room, Miss…?"

"Alison," she turned her head and glared at Cameron, "I'm Alison and she," she paused for a second and her voice grew cold, "she stole my look." Somewhere in the back of his mind a small voice grunted, _'Alison...? What did this model only have so many programmed identities to choose from?'_

The principle sighed, "And the scratches?"

The girl who called herself Alison opened her mouth to respond but Cameron got there first, yet another small smile playing over her features, "Things got…_serious_. But a girl's got to do…"

After one brief glance at Cameron the principle took a sip of his coffee as he muttered in a soft voice, "It's always the quite ones."

A/N: I know I know you don't have to tell me. But hey at least it's out of my head now…yay. Oh and the episode title is 'Allison from Palmdale' but Cameron spells it Alison, so I don't know…


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